


Growing Fonder

by synvamp



Category: One Piece
Genre: 2y, Fluff, M/M, Reunion, Spoilers for the boys' new look in the New World, Sweet, These dorks are so bad at feelings, it's adorable, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:53:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25663933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/synvamp/pseuds/synvamp
Summary: It’s been two years since they saw each other. Sanji expected his feelings for Zoro to fade with time but they never did. Has Zoro moved on? Because Sanji knows now more than ever that he’s not ready for this to be the end.
Relationships: Roronoa Zoro/Vinsmoke Sanji
Comments: 4
Kudos: 183





	Growing Fonder

\---xxx---  
  
Every now and then, when he needed to think, Sanji went to the highest point of the island and looked out to sea. From the grassy peak, he could take in the landscape and get his bearings again, pointing his nose to the setting sun and the stiff sea breeze. Sometimes he saw ships in the distance and sometimes he saw sea kings, and just sometimes – once or twice – he imagined that he saw the Sunny coming to take him away.  
  
_Not long now._  
  
Sanji looked up at the night sky. The stars glittered and winked high above him, just beginning to peek from the lavender depths of dusk. A pink arc rested on the horizon, echoing a glorious pink sunset that had raked the sky. A pink sunset for a pink end to another pink day of frills and garish lipstick and gratuitous violence. It was typical of his time on Okama Island. If he never saw another pink, lace-bibbed apron again, it would be _way_ too soon.  
  
If Zoro had ever seen him in that pink lacy dress, his life would have been over. Not that pink wasn’t his colour (it was), just that Zoro’s caveman intellect didn’t leave much room for fierce, masculine men in frilly underpants. Sanji, on the other hand, was open-minded. Not that he had a choice.  
  
The okamas had made that much clear.  
  
He wondered how the others were getting on. _Two years._ He couldn’t believe it had been so long. They would all be older, but how else would they have changed? Luffy had been only seventeen when he last saw him so he would likely have grown the most. When you were hovering on the cusp of manhood, even a short amount of time can bring abrupt changes. Sanji imagined the boy with Ace’s forehead and jaw-line and laughed and shook his head. _Never._ Luffy would always look like a boy no matter how old he was, it was just his way.  
  
Usopp would have developed his lying and Chopper might even be three foot tall instead of two! Sanji chuckled. Brook and Franky might not have changed much due to their physiology, but the girls would be more beautiful than ever!!! …and Zoro… well.  
  
_Zoro._  
  
Sanji had thought about him a lot in the time he had been on the island. He and the swordsman had only shared a few brief, sweaty moments of bliss but he seemed to think of them more and more. It was only natural he supposed, given that he was stuck on an island of bearded beauties without so much as a strand of red hair to caress… He thought that as time wore on, the memories of Zoro’s deep groans and the taste of his skin would fade but they just became more vivid, flooding his mind with delicious regret.  
  
But there was something more.  
  
Something much more. The things that he missed about Zoro the most were all wrong! He knew the way he was meant to feel and the yearnings that should have kept him up all night - fingers that applied just enough pressure, warm wet lips that moved just so - but instead he craved the swordsman’s stupid laugh, his quiet confidence. It was not a good sign. If only he had Nami and Robin to distract him…  
  
Damn island!  
  
Being surrounded by hundreds of determined okamas in their frillies wasn’t giving him anywhere else to focus his attentions. Zoro was the last thing that was on his mind when he came here, and there he stayed. Now it was just a part of Sanji’s routine, if he had a question or a concern, he would ask the ever-present shadow of Zoro. All he had to do was lie back under the stars and wait for the swordsman to appear.  
  
Sanji closed his eyes and lay back on the grass. Tomorrow he would see them again after two years. He saw Zoro in his mind’s eye just as he was on that first night. He was powerful, sexy and potent – but even now Sanji felt that he seemed different… somehow… young. Now he was twenty-one he would truly be a man.  
  
Zoro had always been so strong and masculine, reassuring and calm. He seemed older than his nineteen years even when Sanji knew him. It was hard to imagine him older, more heavy-set maybe. More serious…  
  
He hoped not too much. He missed the way Zoro laughed, the way he snored, the way he always, always had to be right. The way he always bit. Sanji knew that no matter how dire things were, Zoro would be there to challenge him, to push him ever higher… and he hoped that would never change.  
  
Finally the cook hefted himself to his feet and walked slowly down the slope, back to the adorable pastel pink village that he had called home for the last two years. Only one more night and he would be off… off to re-unite with the people he loved so dearly. After leaving Zeff and that shitty-restaurant, where his nakama were, it was home.  
  
Tomorrow he was _going home._  
  
\---xxx---  
  
The reunion was everything that he had hoped for, all smiles and joy. Everyone looked so healthy and so vibrant, so strong! Luffy was alive and even though they had lost so much, they had gained power, maturity and a passion that united them more than ever before. And Nami’s hair was so beautiful!  
  
He had tried to talk to Zoro but every time he approached the swordsman, he mysteriously vanished. They laughed and jostled as they used to in front of the others but Sanji couldn’t draw Zoro away in private. Finally the evening’s feasting became subdued and the crew trailed off to bed. Zoro announced that he would stay guard and Sanji swore he saw a twinkle in his eye as the swordsman stepped out the heavy wooden door and onto the deck.  
  
Once Chopper had yawned his way past, the cook slunk out into the night. He found Zoro easily, sitting pointedly next to Luffy’s seat at the head of the Sunny, his eyes turned to the horizon.  
  
“Long time, ne?” Sanji said awkwardly. The words seemed to make the distance between them even greater, Zoro’s shoulders twitched once and he turned slowly around.  
  
“Long time.”  
  
“How have you been?”  
  
“Good.” Zoro thought of Perona and shuddered inside. “You?”  
  
“Good.” Sanji thought of the Okamas and shuddered also.  
  
“So…” Sanji trailed off mid-thought. What the hell could he possibly say to Zoro to explain how he felt… after all this time? After so much had changed but nothing had changed at all…  
  
The swordsman turned and faced Sanji, the changes to his face made him look unfamiliar in the dark. His jaw was more square, his cheekbones more prominent. He had that scar… but more than that, the way he walked, the way he talked had changed. He was calmer, stronger, more at ease. He had lost of lot of his youthful bluster and there remained a man that was quietly confident.  
  
Zoro reached out and ran one hand down the curve of Sanji’s jaw, hovering on the tuft of stubble that adorned his chin. It had grown since they had last met. Now it was much more befitting a glorious chef and pirate of legend. Sanji was quite proud of it.  
  
“I’ll have to teach you how to shave someday,” Zoro said.  
  
“Very funny, moss-head,” Sanji mumbled, enjoying the feeling of the rough fingers as they left his skin.  
  
Zoro’s gaze was as dark and unreadable as ever, his face half hidden by the shadow of the mast that cut the ship in half.  
  
“I’ve been thinking…” Sanji said.  
  
Zoro gazed impassively. He really was no damn help at all!  
  
“I…” Sanji began.  
  
No, that was the wrong way to say it.  
  
“You…”  
  
No, that wouldn’t work either…  
  
_Zoro. Think like Zoro!_  
  
“Uh…”  
  
Zoro put one hand on the cook’s shoulder and watched the other man’s reaction. He seemed to see what he was waiting for and moved the hand up to caress Sanji’s jaw once more. The swordsman tilted the jaw this way and that and had a good look at him.  
  
“What are you staring at, moss-for-brains?!”  
  
Zoro grinned and stepped forward, letting his hand drop to Sanji’s chest. He grabbed the fabric of Sanji’s *cough raw silk cough* orange shirt and yanked him forward, kissing him with a fierce hunger that took Sanji’s breath away. As soon as it began, it was over and Sanji was left gasping for air with the taste of the swordsman still on his lips.  
  
Zoro put him down and leaned over his shoulder, pulling their bodies together. Sanji’s pulse raced as he waited for Zoro’s searching hands and hungry lips but the swordsman did not move. He just stood, leaning into Sanji’s body, his arm around the cook’s neck and his chin resting on his shoulder.  
  
“I’ve missed you too,” he said, tightening his embrace.  
  
Sanji searched for words but for once in his life he was breathless…  
  
“I… can’t breathe…” the cook gasped.  
  
“I don’t care,” Zoro said and hung on just a little tighter.  
  
\---xxx---


End file.
